Janelle Lawrence, Don Jeffrey

A man has admitted to plotting to fly remote-controlled toy aircraft packed with explosives into the US Capitol building and the Pentagon.

Rezwan Ferdaus, 26, a Muslim-American with a physics degree, pleaded guilty yesterday in a Boston federal court to attempting to damage a federal building with an explosive and attempting to provide material support to terrorists.

Ferdaus designed and built detonation devices for plastic explosives using mobile phones, according to his indictment. He supplied 12 phones modified to act as switches for the explosives to undercover FBI agents he thought worked for al-Qaeda.

Rezwan Ferdaus. Photo: Reuters

He allegedly told agents he planned to fly two aircraft into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Defence Department, and one into the Capitol in Washington.

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Ferdaus agreed to a recommended sentence of 17 years in prison plus 10 years' supervised release. District Judge Richard Stearns said there was ''sufficient and overwhelming basis to warrant a jury finding him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt''. Sentencing was set for November 1.

His lawyers had argued the FBI continued the sting even though Ferdaus showed signs of mental illness and tried to end communications. ''Undercover agents told him more than 25 times he didn't have to go through with his plan to attack the Pentagon and the US Capitol,'' assistant attorney Stephanie Siegmann said at the hearing. ''In response, the defendant repeatedly reaffirmed his commitment to his plan and his hope to cause psychological harm to the United States.''